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In the English dub, the residents of Birka were known as Birkans. This name was not given in the original Japanese version of the manga or anime. This race was first seen in Chapter 241 and Episode 155.

Like Shandia and the residents of Skypiea, Birkans are endowed with wings on their backs. However, they are differentiated from the other two races by how their wings face downwards. Enel, the leader of the Birkans, is an exception, as he has no wings at all, possessing a ring with drums on it instead.

Residents of Birka have a deal of variety in their appearance. Some of them possess goat-like facial features, having floppy growths resembling goat ears (though they also have normal human ears) and small horns. Unlike Skypieans and Shandia, the people of Birka tend to dress in long white robes, gowns, and other quasi-religious vestments. Their race appears on a drawing in Enel's mini-series, on an image that represented the three races of the Sky Islands; the drawing depicting a race with the same wings. Urouge, a pirate in the Blue Sea, also has a Birkan appearance.

An ancient drawing of the three former races of the moon: Birkan (left), Shandorian (middle) and Skypiean (right).

Their known history is that they were one of three races that once lived on the Moon and aided in the creation of the Automata. When resources on the moon dried up, they along with the Shandorians (ancestors of the Shandia) and the Skypieans left the moon and the Automata behind. They abandoned their city of Birka to settle life anew on the "Blue Star".

At some point in history, the three races became separated from each other and fell into the individual races. The Birkans settled on a Sky Island apparently named after their former home, Birka. They also appeared to "forget" their origins, although the moon, known to them as the "Fairy Vearth" remained a folk tale amongst their people, believing it to be a place of dreams.

Enel was born and raised on this island,[1] but eight years ago after finding and eating the Devil FruitGoro Goro no Mi, he destroyed the island with no hesitation, showing no love for his original homeland. Enel then gathered his followers and left for Skypiea and made himself God there.

The ancient drawing depicts the three races of the sky. However, the drawings also appear to depict a group of people working together towards one goal. With this noted at some point the Shandorians, Skypieans and Birkans may have even been one and the same race (more believable since the Skypieans and Shandia wings are almost identical). Regardless of whether or not they were the same people, to date the history of them separating (or maybe just losing contact with each other) has not been mentioned in the storyline. In fact the only mentioning of a link to the three races past appears to be the Birkan's folklore about the Fairy Vearth.